10 years later, has Toledo’s image recovered from water crisis?

Second in a series

For a city with natural bodies of water that are often tinged green by annual summer algal blooms, it may be surprising that a Google search of Toledo does not immediately evoke a dark spot in the region’s history.

However, a search of “Toledo, Ohio” with the additional keyword “2014” generates pages of articles, including some from the most widely-read publications in the world, lamenting a 2014 algae outbreak in Lake Erie’s Western Basin that left Toledo without drinking water for several days — nearly universally referred to as the Toledo water crisis.

A click on the images tab from that same search reveals a collage of green as numerous photos of the algae-infested water circled the internet following the crisis.

Yet it seems unlikely that a prospective visitor to Toledo would Google the city in relation to 2014. As it stands, someone unfamiliar with northwest Ohio might be unsuspecting of the region’s ongoing water issues.

Since 2014, the city has worked to ensure Toledo has clean water, and efforts have been made to reduce the algal blooms in Lake Erie. This work contributes to the marketability of Toledo as a place that is safe to visit, live, or start a business, but the city has also taken secondary strides to repair an image soiled by the water crisis.

“Having not lived in Toledo during the water crisis, the water crisis became the thing that defined Toledo,” said Jeff Lutz, who lives in Detroit and is the vice president of corporate communications and content for Toledo-based marketing firm Hart Inc. “But on one end, you see local people, politicians, and local environmentalist groups getting in front of potential algal bloom moments.

“The other interesting thing is, over the past few years, drinking-water-adjacent businesses are really taking the lead in Toledo. Breweries, distilleries, coffee shops. The annual coffee quest is a reminder that the water that we have in northwest Ohio is fantastic,” Mr. Lutz added. “So you can see that transition that has happened, where we understand more about the challenges that took place, we’re communicating around those, and we're changing the messaging to focus on the small businesses in the area.”

Like Mr. Lutz mentioned, many breweries that did not exist in 2014, such as Earnest Brew Works, Great Black Swamp Brewing Co., and Inside the Five Brewing Co., have since brought beer and cheer to the Toledo region, disproving lingering worries about local water quality.

As a public relations professional, Mr. Lutz advises his clients to “get in front of the message,” and he thinks that's exactly what local officials and organizations have done when it came to the water crisis.

“Toledo as a city has so much to offer, and they didn’t let that one incident define them,” he said. “They took that moment as an opportunity to pivot, and I think that’s a fantastic recognition of pivoting.”

Mr. Lutz pointed to Metroparks Toledo as a great expansion of the region’s offerings and also recognized the wetlands being installed in Toledo with the help of H2Ohio to help prevent the runoff that causes the algal blooms.

For Rob Krain, who works with Black Swamp Conservancy — a group that coordinates with H2Ohio to protect wetlands and purchase farmland to convert into natural habitats — the most important task should be addressing the still existing problems with water quality in the region.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth in downtown Toledo,” he said. “But we need to convert about 10 percent of our landscape back to wetlands. There's much work yet to be done, both by our organization and others, to fix the problem at its core, rather than the messaging.”

State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo) argues the algae outbreak that made the water undrinkable was “not a crisis.” She argues the threat to public health and safety caused by the incident was greatly exaggerated, citing reports that city hospitals did not see any uptick in sick patients during the spell.

Ms. Hicks-Hudson, who was president of city council at the time of the crisis and mayor of Toledo from 2015 to 2017, said the do-not-drink order was more precautionary than absolutely necessary, pointing toward the fact that Oregon kept drinking its water from the Lake Erie Western Basin without running into any significant issues.

While she was mayor, Ms. Hicks-Hudson said she actively promoted Toledo water in an attempt to divert citizens from purchasing bottled water out of fear.

She recommends promoting the action Toledo took to clean up its water treatment systems. Toledo upgraded both its water storage and processing systems, and Ms. Hicks-Hudson thinks Toledo now has one of the best drinking water treatment plants in the country.

Destination Toledo, the primary promoter of tourism for Toledo, has focused on promoting the city’s offerings, which have increased immensely in the past decade, in a strategy that directs attention away from water concerns.

“Obviously, the Maumee River and Lake Erie are very important parts of our destination, but, thankfully, Toledo is fortunate to have a very diverse tourism market,” said Caleigh Heuring, director of marketing and communications for Destination Toledo. “​​We have incredible attractions and incredible events here and lots of great natural spaces throughout the entire region.”

Toledo is bringing in 16 million visitors each year, Ms. Heuring said, which is an “incredible” boost for the local economy. For Destination Toledo, it’s important that visitors get hooked on the area, perhaps prompting them to consider a move. Ms. Heuring said visitors are usually “pleasantly surprised” by Toledo.